Want a streamer pattern that is different? Take a look at this one from Nick Thomas and also the way he is fishing it. As always, he comes at it from a different angle.
‘If it ain’t chartreuse, then it ain’t no use.’
Lefty Kreh
It ain’t chartreuse, but this one certainly works. I think debating what colour fly a hungry predator is likely to take in murky water is as much point as worrying whether an angry Rottweiler in a dark alley is going to be in any way influenced by the colour of your trousers. Unless they are salmon pink corduroy of course; then you are definitely going to get chewed and get sniggered at in A&E. Big bright chartreuse flies work because aggressive fish can see them, but what if you are fishing clear water for spooky fish on light tackle?
Making a good baitfish imitation to be cast on an 8wt or 9wt rod can be fairly simple. You take a big hook, lash on tons of different materials and then trim it back to the shape you want. Bucktail, trailing hackles, marabou and craft fur all provide length and bulk, but the more material you add, the more water is held in the fly. Sooner or later you are trying to cast a sopping wet drowned budgie. Chucking such things about is manageable, if tiring and a bit nerve-wracking, on a heavy rod but patterns for large baitfish imitations don’t scale down well for small flies and light rods. There’s just too much bulk and mass of fibres to cast and fish effectively.
When I designed this fly I wanted to provide bulk without weight to give a decent sized baitfish imitation that could cast easily and safely on lighter 3-5wt rods. The trick is to produce a hollow ethereal fly that has the required profile viewed from the side and behind without having solid heavy materials all the way through. This is achieved by using plastic bead chain eyes and stripped organza ribbon to push the body fibres away from the hook shank creating the desired tapered drop shape. The red organza wraps give the impression of flaring gills and hold the EP fibres of the back and belly away from the shank making the fly pulse on the retrieve. The tying method is simple and quick with folded fibres making it easy to form a neat finish at the head and a giving a very durable fly. The general design of the fly lends itself to many variations according to the baitfish you want to imitate. I tie them with different coloured eyes, generally using black or pearl plastic bead chain. Varying the colours of the EP fibres, with white, cream or yellow for the belly and brown, green and olive for the back, gives a range of baitfish imitations suitable for targeting perch, chub and the odd big trout. The dressing below is my standard one; tied on a strong Tiemco size 8 hook it gives a fly which is around 3 inches long and casts well on 4wt or 5wt rods.
Hook Tiemco TM2499 SPBL Black size 8
Thread Veevus 10/0 white
Gills Red organza ribbon
Eyes Black plastic bead chain
Belly Cream EP fibres 3D
Lateral Line Crystal Flash
Back Grey EP fibres 3D
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Run on the thread at the eye and take back to the bend in touching turns.
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Cut a 6 inch length of 12mm wide red organza ribbon, trim off one edge and strip out all the long fibres. Cut away the short fibres at one end to create a tying in tag and melt the other end in a flame to prevent the ribbon unravelling as you wind.
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Tie in the ribbon at the bend with the short fibres pointing down and bind down the tag to a point two thirds back up the shank. Now wind the ribbon forward up the shank using double wrapping. Take a turn around the shank followed by a second turn with the woven edge of the ribbon on top of the edge of the previous turn. Take the next wrap onto the shank, followed by a second wrap on top, making sure to stroke back the short fibres on each wrap to avoid trapping them.
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Continue up the shank to the parked thread, tie in the ribbon and trim off the excess.
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Cut two linked beads from a length of plastic bead chain and tie in on top of the shank with figure of eight wraps. Ensure the eyes are sitting level on top of the shank and secure the wraps with a dab of superglue.
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Rotate your vice head or turn the hook over and cut a bundle of cream EP fibres from the hank. You want a bunch of fibres about 2mm thick when you pull it taught, less is better than more.
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Pinch the fibres between finger and thumb, hold in front of the bead chain eyes and adjust your finger hold to give the desired length of fibres for the belly. Keeping hold of the fibres fold the bunch in half and trim the other end to an equal length. Feather the bunch by pulling on the ends of some of the fibres at one end and then working your fingers down the fibres to the other end.
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Take two thread wraps immediately behind the hook eye, fold the feathered fibres in half around the thread and catch the loop of fibres behind the eye. Pull both ends of the folded fibres back towards the bend and bind down back to the bead eyes. Run a dubbing needle through the fibres and separate them either side of the hook point.
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Flip the hook over and take the thread back to the hook eye. Cut 3 strands of flash, fold in half around the thread and tie in back to the bead eyes. Trim to the same length as the belly.
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Return the thread to the hook eye and tie in a feathered bunch of grey EP fibres to form the back using the same technique used for the belly.
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Make additional tight wraps at the head to tidy everything up, whip finish and apply a coat of varnish or superglue to the thread wraps.
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Use a dubbing needle to run repeatedly through the back and belly to straighten out the fibres to form the desired drop shape. Pinch the end of the fly between finger and thumb, pull the fibres taught and stroke the top of the fly with a black or dark olive permanent marker pen to darken the back.
The fly can be tied on smaller size 10 or 12 hooks to make flies 1-2 inches long to match the baitfish and fry in your rivers and lakes and which can be cast on 3-5wt rods. When making small flies cut a proportionally narrower strip of organza for the gills. The tying method can also be scaled up to make larger baitfish imitations on bigger hooks for pike or saltwater use; use 25mm organza ribbon for the gills and cut to your chosen width.
Don't think that you can only fish this pattern on the end of the leader in conventional streamer style. I've found it very useful in small sizes on a short dropper on a nymphing rig with a heavy tungsten bead fly on the point. On a braid touch leader (see ESF #47) the unweighted baitfish swims and flutters in the current while the heavy nymph is used to steer the fly under the rod tip into deep holes and along the edge of fast runs where a predator may be waiting to snatch prey. A bit like drop-shotting but with a fly rod instead of a spinning rod. This method has proved to very effective in catching some big chub from the deep channels on my home stretch of the Taff.
For fishing the deepest runs I tie some weighted versions incorporating a brass or tungsten bead at the back of the shank. Placing the bead here keeps the fly swimming level as you steer it through the current and enhances the flaring of the organza gills.
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Place a bead on the hook, catch in the thread half way down the shank behind the bead and take down to the bend in touching turns.
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Build up a ball of thread wraps large enough to stop the bead sliding backwards. Whip finish, apply a dab of superglue and jam the bead back over the thread.
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Reattach the thread at the eye, take back to the bead and tie in a length of stripped red organza ribbon. Make several turns of double wrapped organza tight against the bead, tie in and trim off the excess.
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Make some tight wraps over the base of the organza fibres to flare them out against the bead.
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Tie in the bead chain eyes in front of the wrapped organza and complete the fly as described previously.
So if casting a dead parrot makes your arm ache and scares the hell out of you, try one of these. Oh, and if you really, really want to tie a chartreuse version, I’ll forgive you.
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.